Thursday, May 28, 2015

In these first couple of days at the garden I have had the privilege of meeting some amazing people. When hired for this Alliance Garden position I was told, not only I am going to grow a garden, but I will also grow in a community. I was excited about the garden… quite hesitant on the community part.

I mean, what is community? This term is thrown around a lot on IWU campus. We talk a lot about intentional community, but what does that mean? I have always wrestled with this concept and fitting into the ideal definition of community, since I am rather introverted and enjoy large unseemly amounts time to myself. What do you guys think? I do not actually have a personal definition to give to you, so this might be a bit of a letdown.

Yet, through weeding, tilling, mulching, planting, and much more I have been able to work alongside my lovely workers and learning about who they are. On the surface we are all very similar people and we even laughed about it when we first met about how eerily similar we all are. Yet after spending a little time with Armi, Ashley, Lexi, and Emily, our quirks, differences, backgrounds, etc. began to show through. Armi has an insatiable need to learn new life skills; Ashley’s dry sarcasm never ceases to make me laugh; Lexi has a legitimate duck obsession; and Emily, well Emily is the biggest sweetheart and perhaps the most normal out of the group. Even though we are pretty early into our work and adventures I am sure this will be a season of bonding for all of us. --Andra